Many portable electronic devices, such as cellular phones, have illuminated components, including displays and keypads. These portable electronic devices sometimes include a photodetector that estimates relative ambient light levels in order to enable display backlighting in dark ambient light conditions. Adding this photodetector to the electronic device increases the cost and required size of the electronic device.
One type of portable electronic device that incorporates illuminated components is the flip-type cellular phone. Photodetectors used to determine the illumination state for the illuminated components are frequently located on the devices so that the photodetector is covered when the flip portion of the phone is closed. This causes such cellular phones with a photodetector to be unable to determine ambient light conditions with the flip closed.
Therefore, a need exists to overcome the shortcomings of the prior art as described above.